Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Sacrifice in OMS

The more that I fly my Vexor and the better my skills become, the more I tweak and adapt my setup to best suit my play style and what I am finding effective. My current setup right now is:

4x named small blasters (depending on what is available/cheap)1x small nos (t1 or named depending on what is lying around in my hangar)1x 10MN microwarpdrive1x webber1x warp disruptor (any scram with a range of 20km+)1x 1600mm tungsten armor plating1x energized adaptive nano membrane (adds to all armor resists)1x energized reactive nano membrane (adds to explosive armor resists)1x damage control II

(1) The addition of small blasters in place of my old setup that contained 3-4 nosferatu's and some medium railguns. I find that with my tank being almost completely passive that there isn't really a reason for me to be going overboard with the nosferatu and I also found that using medium railguns was pretty useless as the range and damage are not optimal. I can only fit small blasters which means I do not get the Vexor's medium gun bonuses but their extra damage is still helpful and I manage to lock people up at close range in a majority of the fights i get into.

(2) The addition of the energized reactive nano membrane in place of the small armor repairer. This is a little bit of an inconvenience and a gamble as I have to dock up and pay or equip a repper in order to fix armor damage, but it allows me to have decent and balanced resists. These resists coupled with the 1600mm plate give me a pretty decent buffer before I go down in flames.

I took this setup out to Old Man Star again last night with a small gang including another Vexor and an Arazu. We found plenty of targets as usual although some were larger than we could consider. Several times I warped into a belt and found a certain pilot in a Caldari Carcal cruiser sitting at 100km from the center. We checked and found that a few other pilots currently in the system were also in his corp so he obviously was not alone. I approached him to evoke a response but he simply flew away from me to maintain the range rather than calling in friends or engaging. Finally I encountered him again in a belt and attempted to engage. He committed and we locked into combat. I launched my Hammerhead II's while he pummeled me with missiles and we locked up into the usual close range webbed orbit. His shields were going down excruciatingly slow but I just attributed this to the fact that Caldari ships are usually shield tanked. Once I could get through those shields, the rest should be easy.

While this 1v1 struggle was going on, we had both informed our gang mates that we were in combat and both of our gangs were warping towards us at breakneck speeds. The Caldari pilots gang began to land on me and I was engaged by a Crow interceptor, then a Thorax cruiser and then an Arazu cruiser. My own gang mates warped in and then immediately fled when they saw the opposing gang. While I didn't understand at the time, they informed me that when they landed in the belt there were enemy battleships arriving as well! I attempted to flee in vain but was webbed and scrambled so I had no choice but to go down with my ship. The only thing I was concerned with now was finishing off this Carcal pilot before I was popped myself. Down and down my armor and structure went. Down and down his armor and structure went. Just as my ship began buckle and burst, the Carcal exploded into fiery flames. I warped my pod away and checked the kill mail. I had been under fire by four different ships but still lasted long enough to destroy the other cruiser which was piloted by a skilled pilot and equipped with very respectable equipment. I lost my ship but was extremely satisfied with the exemplary effort and sacrifice she made for my kill count.

Yea I do realize that the plate severely effects my maneuverability and speed but I don't really feel like I have the SP to effectively utilize a nano setup like several people have suggested to me. Perhaps later on down the road I will try it out.